Rose ragwort, which is poisonous to horses, cattle and people, is found in many hay mixtures that are fed to rabbits. Since the dried herb can hardly be identified in the hay, many rabbit owners worry whether their pets could also be harmed by the ragwort.
Is ragwort harmful to rabbits?
Scarfwort is harmless to rabbits because they tolerate the plant well and the toxin is not harmful to them. Other rodents such as hamsters, gerbils and guinea pigs can also eat the herb without any problems.
Rabbits like to eat the plant
Numerous rabbit owners report that their animals really enjoy eating ragwort and even prefer the plant to other grasses. You don't have to worry about your rabbits, because the herb in the mixture is completely compatible with the animals. The animals' livers show no changes, even when fed one-sidedly with ragwort. Also other rodents like:
- Hamster
- gerbils
- Guinea pig
can tolerate ragwort without any problems.
Why are rodents resistant?
The effects of the ragwort poison have not yet been fully researched. 40 to 80 grams of the plant can cause death in horses. If cattle and horses repeatedly eat ragwort over a longer period of time, the toxins accumulate in the liver and lead to gradual poisoning.
It is possible that the poison of the ragwort is inactivated in the gastrointestinal tract of rodents and therefore does not enter the organism. Studies show that animals that ate the herb over several months were completely he althy. However, if the poison was injected into the animals, they died within a few days.
Toxins in the liver are broken down
Small amounts of the toxins are also deposited in the liver of rabbits, but the animals are extremely insensitive. Since the liver is an extremely regenerative organ, the pyrrolizidine alkaloids, like many other substances, are slowly broken down again.
Rabbits keep ragwort populations small
The reason why ragwort is spreading so massively is because the number of wild rabbits has noticeably decreased in recent years. The wild rabbit seems to be almost the only natural enemy of the plant in our latitudes.
Tip
The rabbit, as a specialized herbivore, benefits from as varied a diet as possible. The animals themselves are allowed to eat ragwort in small quantities and are not harmed by it.